Doubles, rollers, the kind of jumps you get on a downhill run at a trail centre. E,g, AE Omega man, Whinlatter, Innerliethen etc etc

I’m pretty comfy with being in the air but I never hit the jumps flat out. I ride to my skill level, and I know from experience if I ride faster, hit the jumps harder things go wrong.

So my current technique is to approach the jump with weight to the rear, even things up as I take flight and try to land both wheels simultaneously.

Do I need to try and land with more weight forward and touch down with the front wheel or vice versa? Any other tips? I don’t ride with any good ‘jumpers’ so I don’t have anyone to learn from.

Any help/tips gratefully received.

And if it makes any difference I ride a Blur LT.

You will probably find that you are thinking too much about the landing. You are going to land, and thinking about it and looking for it are not going to change anything. If you stretch your attention way ahead and through the trail (not down at the trail) your confidence will grow and speed and smoothness will improve.

You dont want to hit the jumps flat out, unless your racing. It only means you have to 'squash' the jumps alot to avoid clearing the landing.

do them at a pace that feels comfortable, weight at the rear sounds wrong though, you should be pretty central on the bike, and stood up not crouching.

Learn how to take off properly before worrying to much about nosing into landings etc. Both wheels landing at the same time is probably good for trail center jumps, if your riding trails then getting the front wheel in is key.

Just HUCK the bloody thing. 😀

youtube

All good advice chaps, but I am looking for that extra race speed! Like I said I'm pretty comfy hitting jumps fast, and taking a fair amount of air, but just not flat out.

And good point Glen about looking further down the trail. I do do that but even if i see clear trail ahead i'm still not flat out.

I do sit back in the approach as I find that from a rear bias position the ramp gradient pushes your weight forward and centralises your weight for the actual take off.

You should be going for both wheels down at once if you can but landing on a downslope will usually see your front wheel touching down first.

I'm no expert but I always found treating it like a massive bunnyhop worked for me, so on take off my weight would be forwards and my landing would see me at the back. I also found it helped (me) to not think about the landing at all until I was actually in the air. The jump was just that, treat it like I was taking off. Once I was in the air I would then have a look at the landing. But as I say, I'm no expert and I should imagine that approach doesn't work too well once you're onto bigger than the doubles I can do.

I think you are already doing the right thing, mjrose. If read correctly you are talking about hitting the jumps that appear mid-flow in singletrack trails (not pure jumping for air's sake), in which case weighting somewhat to the rear is not wrong. There is a bit more to it than that, in terms of what you do with your feet and how you pump into the takeoff, but don't get into making it any more fussy than it needs to be – you do not need to hop, for example.

From what you describe I honestly think that drawing yourself further down the trail will give access to the extra speed you want. It is more than just looking further ahead, you've got to "be" further ahead. The landing will happen anyway.

if its truly flat out then you wanna do almost nothing!

stay central, let the bike rise up into your body and suck up the lip. otherwise you are gonna fly to the moon!

think about pumping a big roller, the way the bike comes up underneath you. do that UP the lip. suck it up, your speed will carry you over, then just push down when you wanna land! weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-perform-a-bike-box-jump-3347

Thanks All. Love your description and likening to a roller nicko. Will check out the video when i'm not at work.

🙂

This video is just as relevant